Bryan Garaventa, 19, pleaded guilty in Stapleton Criminal Court to a state felony charge of second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime. Criminal Court Judge Alan J. Meyer sentenced Garaventa to 90 days behind bars, which will run concurrently to a five-year federal prison term Garaventa is serving over the incident.

Advance file photo/Michael OatesBryan Garaventa

Garaventa and three others — Brian Carranza, Michael Contreras and Ralph Nicoletti — were accused of running down a Port Richmond man with a car and beating Alie Kamara, a Liberian immigrant with a metal pipe in "retaliation" for Barack Obama’s being elected the country’s first black president on Nov. 4, 2008.

At today’s hearing, Garaventa admitted that he hit Kamara in the head with a blunt instrument because of his race.

Ronald Forte, 40, of Port Richmond, is white, but the defendants thought he was black due to a dark-hooded sweatshirt he was wearing at the time he was run down. Forte survived after lingering in a coma for several weeks with life-threatening injuries.

Kamara, then 17, was beaten with a metal pipe as he walked to his Stapleton home.

When the four defendants were sentenced in September in Brooklyn federal court, District Judge Carol B. Amon said Garaventa instigated the attacks. But she also noted that his cooperation with authorities played a significant role in bringing his accomplices to justice.

She said Nicoletti, 19, who was driving the car, had mowed down Forte on his own initiative.

Garaventa, Contreras, 20, of Fort Wadsworth, and Carranza, 22, of Port Richmond, had each previously pleaded guilty to one count of racially motivated interference with voting rights.

Contreras and Carranza received federal prison terms of 55 months and 70 months, respectively. Nicoletti of Fort Wadsworth, who had pleaded guilty to three counts of the same crime was sentenced to nine years behind bars. In addition, the defendants were sentenced to three years’ supervised release.

Nicoletti and Garaventa were the only defendants to face state charges.

In December, Nicoletti pleaded guilty in Stapleton Criminal Court to a state felony charge of second-degree assault as a hate crime. He was sentenced to three and a half years behind bars plus two and a half years of post-release supervision. That sentence is running concurrently to his federal prison term.

Garaventa had also faced felony and misdemeanor charges arising from an unrelated April 14, 2009 incident in which he allegedly bashed his former girlfriend’s car and harassed her. The plea deal covers that case as well.